Ask Register readers to tell you about the best Christmas gift they ever got and guess what you get?

The best answers.

We hope you enjoy these responses as much as we did. Merry Christmas.

FROM MOM, WITH LOVE

I was born during the Depression, 1931. My father was a coal miner and my mother worked in the Heinz factory making gliders for the Air Force, so money was tight.

The only fun was listening to the radio or ice skating on the pond. I always wished for a pair of white figure skates. But with rationing, that took a shoe stamp.

One Christmas my mother’s friend gave her a shoe stamp so my mother could get me the skates. What a surprise gift! I still have them, even though they were size 8 and I wore size 5. I never grew into them; I just stuffed the toes. That will always be my best Christmas as a child.

– Gin Anders, 82, Anaheim

When I was a small child, I loved the story books about Raggedy Ann and Andy. Every birthday and Christmas I wished for a Raggedy Ann doll. The doll never came. As I grew older I abandoned my hopes for her.

On Christmas Day of 1994, after we had opened gifts with our family, the door bell rang. There stood a UPS delivery man with a package for me from my mother.

When I brought it inside and opened it, there was the longed-for Raggedy Ann doll dressed in the traditional blue dress and white apron with red yarn hair, shoe button eyes, and small red heart on her chest that said, "I Love You" inside.

I was 50 years old! My mother had felt guilty all those years for not getting her for me. The tears rolled down my face as I hugged my doll. Moms never stop doing things for their children.

– Diane Lamm, 69,Mission Viejo

GIFTS THAT KEEP GIVING

At the age of 8, I truly received the best gift that anyone could ever ask for in Christmas 2003. As my two sisters and I arose at the crack of dawn, a video was playing on our DVD player. There on the screen I saw a pug breeder with cute pugs surrounding her saying, “Jordan, you get to take one of these guys home with you.”

Gin Anders, 82, holds a pair of white figure skates at the Rinks Anaheim Ice. Her mother got her the skates for Christmas in the 1940s. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Gin Anders points to where her feet extended in the skates. They were a size 8 and Anders was a size 5 at the time and had to stuff the toes to use them. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Gin Anders got her Christmas skates during World War II, when things were rationed. Her mother got a shoe stamp from a friend so she could surprise Anders with the skates. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Gin Anders still has the stamp book that allowed her mother to purchase the skates. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Diane Lamm of Mission Viejo says the best Christmas gift she ever received was a Raggedy Ann doll she always wanted as a child but never received. Then on Christmas Day in 1994, when Lamm was 50, she got the doll from her mother. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Diane Lamm shows the heart on the Raggedy Ann doll that she received from her mother when she was 50. Her mother had felt guilty for not getting the doll for her as a child. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Diane Lamm holds a favorite book of Raggedy Ann she has kept with her most of her life. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The children's book "ideal" of Raggedy Ann creator Johnny Gruelle is displayed in Diane Lamm's book. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
This Raggedy Ann doll was given to Diane Lamm for Christmas when Lamm was 50. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Jordan Lockhart with his 10-year-old pug, the best Christmas gift he and his sisters ever received. Because of his infatuation at the time with the film "Men in Black," he named the "sweetest, most fun-loving dog in the world" Frank. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Frank plants a wet one on owner Jordan Lockhart, 19, at their La Habra home. "This dog has brought unending joy to my family and I," Lockhart says of man's best friend. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Jordan Lockhart holds his 2003 Christmas present and best gift ever. The pair even bunk together. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Lockhart triplets, from left, Jordan with Frank, Tori with Ziggy and Chloe with Bella, know that good things come in threes. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Frank, 10, has a face that only a mother can love. "Due to his looks, Frank's best attribute is definitely his humor," says proud owner Jordan Lockhart. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Jordan Lockhart's La Habra home is pug-friendly. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Triplets, from left, Tori, Jordan and Chloe Lockhart, then 8, with their 2003 Christmas gift, Frank. CINDY YAMANAKA, COURTESY THE LOCKHART FAMILY
Frank grew into his big eyes. The much-loved pug was a 2003 Christmas present for Jordan Lockhart of La Habra. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Jordan Lockhart, then 8, was so excited to get Frank for Christmas. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Beth Miller of Orange, left, says the best Christmas gift she ever got was a ring that her son Riley bought with $5 at a school Christmas boutique. She is wearing the ring on her right hand in this photo. COURTESY OF BETH MILLER
Stu Evans of Mission Viejo was surprised one Christmas when his parents got him the red Schwinn bike he wanted so badly. COURTESY OF STU EVANS
Linda Cone treasures the six years she had together with her husband Paul Cone, who died in 2012. Paul surprised Linda with an engagement ring at a family Christmas dinner and gift exchange in 2006. COURTESY OF LINDA CONE
Donald Lamm of Mission Viejo received this portrait of his wife, Diane, and their twin sons on Christmas Day 1967 while aboard an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. COURTESY OF DONALD LAMM
Dennis Lee Salts of Buena Park is shown here on the rocking horse he received one Christmas. A week before Christmas, he told Santa Claus he wanted it and somehow, Santa delivered. COURTESY OF DENNIS LEE SALTS
For Pat Evans of Anaheim, her first great-grandchild, Ethan Quinn, was the best Christmas present she could ask for. Ethan was born the week before Christmas in 2012. COURTESY OF PAT EVANS
John Bentley of Orange still has both the Marx train set his mother got him for Christmas in 1946 and the Lionel set his dad bought for him that same holiday. COURTESY OF JOHN BENTLEY
Aleta Orsini of Orange says her granddaughter Abby, shown at birth and as she is now, is the best Christmas gift she ever got. Abby was born Dec. 25, 2002. COURTESY OF ALETA ORSINI
Vicki Charles of Yorba Linda says her best Christmas gift was the pearl ring shown here on her hand, a surprise from her stepmother when she was 13. COURTESY OF VICKI CHARLES
Terry Walls of Huntington Beach saw this toy monkey in a store and just had to have him. Her mother bought "Zippy" for her as a Christmas present in 1958 and she has had him ever since. COURTESY TERRY WALLS
Cindy Hart of Laguna Hills still has the doll clothes that her mother had a seamstress make as a Christmas present when Hart was 8. COURTESY OF CINDY HART

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